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Chapter 1
Plant Reproduction
Let's Begin
Do you know this man? He is Chandi Prasad Bhatt. So, what is
special about him? Let us read a real-life anecdote to know
about this great man and his work.

There is a small village, named Reni, in the Chamoli district

in Uttarakhand. The local residents wanted to
plant a few
trees in the forest land to make farming tools. However, their
request was denied by the local government. Instead, the
local government, in 1974, decided to allot the forest land to a Chandi Prasad Bhatt

sports goods company. At that time, Chandi Prasad Bhatt introduced the Chipko Movement
in Uttarakhand to protect forest trees from mass destruction.

"Let them know we will not allow the felling of a single tree. When their men raise their
axes, we will hug the trees to protect them." - Chandi Prasad Bhatt

Many local villagers helped him save trees. Before the industrialists raised their axe to cut
a tree, villagers embraced the tree to save it. They organised several rallies and gatherings
to highlight the importance of trees in human life and made active efforts to protect the
forests from auctions for commercial cuttings. By the year 1981, more than a million trees
had been planted through their efforts.
The Chipko Movement made us realise the importance of trees and plants in our lives.

Lef's Find Out

A seed is the part of a plant from which a new plant can grow. The seed develops.inside the
flower of a plant.

Plant Reproduction
Let's Try 1

Observe the pictures given above and identify them. All these are different types of seeds
used in our daily life. Write their names, characteristics (like shape and colour) and how they
are used in cooking. Record your observations in the following table. One is done for your
reference.
Name of the Seed Shape and Colour Use in Cooking

Rice White, rod-shaped Boil, fry

G7
The Stfucture of aSeed7
A seed is coveted by a seed_coat which
protects it. Inside the seed coat, the seed has

O-
fleshy seed leaves known as cotyledons. Some
seeds like maize and wheat have Embryo
rice, only
one fleshy seed leaf; such seeds are known as Cotyledon
Seed coat
monocotyledons. Some seeds like pea, beans
and sunflower have two fleshy seed leaves; A dicotyledon seed
they are known as dicotyledons.
These cotyledons store food for embryo, the new baby plant. The baby plant uses this food
tillits own roots and leaves grow.

2 Mylestone Science-5
 Experiment 1

Aim: To study the structure of a bean seed

Material Required: A bean seed, water and Petri dish

Procedure:
Soak a bean seed overnight in water
Observe the change in the seed; if it is swollen or not.
Now, carefully remove the seed coat.
Observe the different parts of the seed like the cotyledons which store food for
embryo, the baby plant.

My Findings:
Draw and label the structure of a bean seed.

Plant Reproduction 3
 Let'sTry 2
Nowyou have learnt about a variety of seeds. Use your artistic skills to draw the structure
of a fruit/vegetable having many seeds and a fruit/vegetable having a single seed.

Let's Find Out

Have you ever observed the plants in your garden or surroundings? List some types of plants
you have seen:

1. 2.
3
5 6
Do you know how plants bear fruits and flowers? They do so by the process of reproduction.
Reproduction is defined as a process by which an organism, whether a plant or an animal,
produces new individuals of its own kind.

Reproduction in Plants: from Seeds 31 d

Most of the plants produce seeds, which giverise to new plants of the same type as the parent
plant. A seed requires favourable conditions to grow into a new plant. These conditions are
as follows:
rhe seed should be healthy (a damaged seed does not grow into a new plant).
It should get the right type of soil and minerals.

. I t should get the right amount of water, air, light and warmth to grow into a new plant.
Inthe presence of these favourable-conditions, the-seed-grows into a baby plant called a
seadlingThts proqess by which a seed turns into a seedling is called germination

Mylestone Science-5
Stages of Germination of Seeds
Observe the given picture. In
your own words, describe the
Draw a flowchart to show the same. changes you see at every stage.

Stages of germination in a bean seed

Day 1

Sketch Sketch Sketch Sketch

Description Description Description Description

n 7

7
When a
réceivesedequate water, it swells up and,its seed coat bursts.to give rise to a
seed
baby plant. The developing embryogets jts food from the cotyledons pre[ent inside the
seed.
The baby plant first develops its root and then a tiny green shoot emérges from the other
end. The baby plant grows and it starts developing
small green leaves. The
growing shoot
straightens out and pushes the cotyledon above the ground. Gradually, the shoot extends to
form a proper stem and leaves unfold.
Cotyledons eventually fall off with the growth of the
baby plant and start performing photosynthesis by using sunlight, water and chlorophyll.
Plant Reproduction 5
Let's Find Out
Dispersal of Seeds
Do you think all the seeds falling from a plant grow into new plants? No. This is because all
the seeds that fall the ground do not get adequate nutrients,
on
space and warmth to grow.
It is important that these seeds are distributed over a wide area where they get the right
conditions to grow.
Nature has some amazing methods by which the seeds of plants scattered
are over large
distances. The phenomenon of scattering of seeds large distances is known
over as dispersal
of seeds. Some common methods of dispersal are listed below:

Wind Dispersal
Some seeds are as light as dust and can be easily carried away to new places by wind. Seeds
of cotton, common milkweed and dandelion have tiny hair on them. Seeds of maple tree
have wings attached to them. The seeds of orchid plants are tiny and
light. These adaptations
enable the seeds to be carried away by wind.

Cotton seed Dandelion

Seed of orchid plant

Maple seed
6
Mylestone Science-5
Water Dispersal
Trees like coconut and palm trees grow near waterbodies or on the
seacoast. The seeds of such trees float on water and are dispersed by
water.

These seeds have a thick coat of fibre which enables them to float on
Coconut
water. These seeds are carried thousands of kilometres across seas and
Oceans.

The lotus plant is like

sponge. It has a lot of empty spaces throughout
a

its body and is filled with air which helps it float.

Lotus
Animal Dispersal
Seeds can be transported in many ways. Humans and animals also
help in transporting seeds.
They eat fruits and throw away the inedible seeds. Sometimes birds swallow the whole fruit
along with the seeds. The seeds which are not digested come out with the faeces and are
dropped at various places. Some seeds have thorns on them. Such thorny seeds stick to the fur
orhair of animals which pass by and are carried away to far-off
places, where they may drop off
and germinate. The seeds of
tàmarind, mango and nuts are dispersed through animals.

Dispersion of seeds by animals Dispersion of seeds by humans Dispersion of seeds by a bird

Dispersal through Seed Bursting

Some seeds grow in pods. When the
pod ripens, it dries up and explodes or bursts
open. By
this process, seeds are thrown out in all the directions. The
seeds of peas, beans, almonds
and walnuts are dispersed in this way.

Ripe pea pods dispersed by explosion Ripe almond that dispersed by explosion
Ripe walnut that dispersed through
explosion
Plant Reproduction
7
 Experiment 2

Aim: To understand how to grow plants without using seedss

Material Required: Sweet potato, onion, toothpicks and two clear containers.

Procedure:
1. Take a sweet potato and an onion.

2. Stick toothpicks in the centre of the sweet potato and place it on the edge ofa
clear container.
3. Put water at the bottom of the sweet potato such that it becomes
4. Keep the sweet potato in the Sun.

5. Maintain the water level throughout the activity.

6. Repeat the same procedure with the onion.
7. Observe sweet potato and onion, especially the roots as they grow.
Note: Before starting the activity, observe and count the eyes on the sweet
potato
and once the activity is done, observe the number
of leaves
coming out from
those eyes.

My Findings:

8
Mylestone Science-5
Let's Find Out
Reproduction of Plants Without Seeds
Sometimes, a new plant can grow from a stem, root or a leaf. The growth of plants from
different parts other than the seed is known as vegetative reproduction.
Reproduction from Stems 272v
The stems of rose, hibiscus and money plant can be used to grow newplants. Potatoes,
ginger and onions examples of underground stems. These can also be used to grow new
are

plants. Potatoes and ginger have 'eyes' on them. If we cut a

piece of potato having an eye on
it and put this piece in soil, a new
potato plant will grow out of it.

new plants

eye

Rose
Potato
Reproduction from Roots
Some roots like those of sweet
potato, dahlia, carrot and
radish can give rise to new
plants. If we cut the top portion of
a carrot and
plant it in the ground, a new plant will
from it. grow

Reproduction from Leaves Carrot

Sometimes, new plants can grow from leaves.

is a common
example of a plant which producesBryophyllum
new plants
from its leaves.
Tiny buds grow on the
leaf. margin of the parent
After some time, they fall off on the
into new plants. ground and grow
Each bud can give rise to a new
Bryophyllum baby plant.
Plant Reproduction

9
Uses of Plants /21
Plants provide shelter to many living things.
Insects, birds and other animals make their homes in big and small trees.
People use timber to build their homes.
Many other valuable products including medicines, cotton, rubber and paper are derived
from plants. Even coal comes from dead and decayed plant matter.

Plants give us fruits, vegetables and flowers.

Let's Try 3
Circle the correct option to complete each statement.

1. j seeds get dispersed through wind.

a. Bean b. Cotton C. Lotus d. Pea

2. can reproduce from leaves.

a. Bean b. Cotton C. Mushroom d Bryophyllum

3. is/are necessary fora seed to germinate.

a. Water b. Sunlight C. Carbon dioxide d. Allof the above

Let'sTry 4
Name the following.

a. A seed which is dispersed by water:

b. A plant that can be grown from the cutting of a stem: u ob n

sThe plant growing inside the seed:

d. The outer covering of aseed: Cebo7o eod C a t
e. Reproduction from the other parts ofa plánt: V¢clas

fA pod which explodes to disperse seeds:

10 Mylestone Science-5
Let's Learn New Words
cotyledon: the portion inside the seed which stores
food
embryo: the stage between seed and seediing in a plant's life
reproduction: the process by which an organism produces young ones of its own kind
germination: the process by which a seed grows into a new plant
seedling: a baby plant
seed coat: the outer covering of a seed
dispersal: the process of scattering of seeds from the parent plant

Let's Remember
Having gone through the wonderful life cycle of plants and their beautiful
seed to seedling, I understand why people of the small
journey from
village in Uttarakhand would
have risked their lives for trees and
plants. Plants are like us. Human beings reproduce
and so do plants. The beauty of nature is that
plants can reproduce through a variety
of ways from seeds and from various
vegetative parts like stems, roots, and leaves.
Few days back, I visited a farm at my
grandfather's place. I was amazed to see the
beauty of nature. Different varieties of seeds were planted in the crop field in rotation.
I remembered learning about the structure of a seed
with seed coat, cotyledon and
embryo. I saw a squirrel feeding on fruits in the field and in the process dispersing the
seeds. This was animal dispersal in action. Seeds are also
dispersed through various
other mediums like water and wind.
Dispersal helps seeds to spread over a larger area.
A plant needs proper nutrients to
grow. I have learnt how important plants are for all
of us and l promise to always nurture them.

Let's Try 5
Answer the following questions in your notebook.
1. All seeds do not grow into new plants. Give reasons.

2. What is the importance of seed dispersal?

3. Plants can reproduce without seeds. Explain.

Plant Reproduction
11
 4. How are seeds dispersed? Explain any two ways of seed dispersal.

5. Explain the structure of a seed.

Discuss and Share

Biomimicry
Bio' means life and 'mimicry' means to copy. Thus, biomimicry is to copy nature and take the
best ideas from nature and use them to solve our problems.
The lotus flower repels dust and dirt particles naturally. When water rolls on the lotus leaf, it
collects everything on the surface and leaves a clean and healthy leaf behind. A German paint
company spent 4 years on this research and developed a paint with similar properties. The
surface of the paint pushes away dust and dirt, reducing the need to wash the walls. Refer to
the given diagram to visualise this phenomenon.

Lotus leave Paint

You may have worn shoes with Velcro straps. Velcro was invented by a Swiss
engineer, George
de Mestral, in 1941. Once he removed burrs from his dog and decided to take a
closer look
at how they worked. The small hooks found at the end of the burr
needles inspired him to
create the present ubiquitous, Velcro.

Burdock
Velcro

12
Mylestone Science-5
 1. List a few other examples of biomimicry in nature.

2. Why is it important for us to conserve nature?

3. What steps can be taken to conserve plants?

We Care
There are some species of plants and animals that are found only in one geographic region.
These are called endemic species.

Gucchi mushrooms are found only in the Himalayas. They possess a variety of medicinal
properties and are more expensive than gold. Gucchi mushrooms usually grow in groups
on logs of decaying wood or decaying leaves and even in humus soil. However, in the next
season, they may not grow in the same place, but in other place. There are several other
endemic species of high importance. They are already less in number and, thus, need to
be conserved. Can you think of ways to conserve these species?

Plant Reproduction
13
 Chapter 2
Animal Life

Let's Begin
We, the humans, share this planet with approximately
8.5 million animal species, and all these species play an

important role in our ecosystem. However, nowadays the

human activities, mainly in the form of urban development,

are causing many plant or animal species to disappear at an

alarming rate. Such a plant or animal species that is in danger
of disappearing forever is called endangered species. If any
animal dies out completely, it becomes
species of a plant or

extinct. One such example is passenger pigeons.

Of the world's total mammal species, 83 are extinct, 2 are

extinct in the wild, 204 are critically endangered, 464 are

Passenger pigeon
endangered, 526 are vulnerable, 350 are near threatened,
783 are data deficient and 3,155 are of least concern.

The planet does not belong just to us but to various species of plants and animals as well.
Animals are everywhere on the earth. They live deep in oceans, in dry deserts and also
on high mountains. And just like us, they have to perform certain life functions to survive.
it is our responsibility to protect their natural habitat so that they do not become extinct.

Dota obtainedfrom Red List Unit (ICUN), December 2016

14 = Mylestone Science-5
Let's Find Out
animals and to
Breathing, feeding and movement are certain important life functions in
in a
perform these life functions, they have specific organs. However, the organ for breathing
monkey has to be different from that of a fish. Do you know why?
This is because organs are suited to the environment in which an animal lives.

Let's Try 1
Design your own animal.
Read the following description of various environments. List the animals that will be able
to survive in the given environmental condition.

.This is a rocky, mountainous area where it snows mostly from mid-October to May.
The rough, barren ground is often covered with a slippery sheet of ice. There are a
series of shallow caves on the mountainside, which offer little protection against the
fierce winds. Because of the low temperatures and high cold winds at this altitude, the
plants that are able to survive year round grow close to the ground.

This environment is wet with many trees that provide deep shade. The climate is hot
and humid and it rains frequently here. Waterbodies here have algae on the surface.
Frogs lay eggs in waterbodies.

Animal Life 15
 Experiment 1

Aim: To check the capacity of your lungs

Material Required: Water, a bowl, a bottle and a measuring cylinder

Procedure:
Take a big and shallow bowl and fill two thirds of it with water.
Take an open-mouthed big bottle, fill it
with water with the help of measuring
cylinder and close it tightly.
Note down the volume of water in the bottle.
Hold the bottle upside down and immerse it in the bowl filled with
water.
Now, remove the cover of the bottle.
Mark the level of water inside the bottle and insert the tube
by titling the bottle to
one side carefully so that no air enters into it.

Leave the other side hanging freely outside the bowl.

.Inhale as deeply as you can and then blow air forcefully into the free end of the
tube with your mouth.
Observe the volume of water you displace and level the water
inside the bottle.
Now take out the bottle
carefully by placing the hand over its mouth and measure
the volume of the remaining water with the
measuring cylinder.
The diference between the volume
of water displaced and the actual volume of
water determines your lung capacity.

My Findings:

16
Mylestone Science-5
Nature has provided animals with certain characteristics that help them perform various
functions. Let's study the different body functions in animals.

Breathing in Animals
What do animals need to breathe?
Land Animals
mouth
All terrestrial animals like human beings breathe
through their lungs. Air enters the lungs through the windpipe
windpipe. The lungs have blood vessels, which take
in lungs
oxygen from the air and supply it to all parts of the
body.
Breathing in human body through lungs
Aquatic Animals
Do you know why whales and dolphins often the surface of water? They are aquatic
come to

animals, but they have lungs; so, they come to the surface to inhale oxygen and exhale carbon
dioxide through their nostrils called blowholes.
What do the other aquatic animals like fishes, crabs, oysters and tadpoles breath as they do
not have lungs? They all breathe through their gills. The gills absorb the oxygen dissolved in
water and release carbon dioxide.
gills
blowhole

Blowhole in a dolphin Fish with gills

Amphibians
They live both on land and in water. On land,
they breathe through their lungs; while
under water, they breathe through their
moist skin. Frogs, toads and salamanders are
amphibians. Many aquatic salamanders and
Frog Toad
all tadpoles have gills in their larval stage.

Animal Life 17
 Insects and Worms
What about the insects we see around us? Insects
like cockroach, mosquito and grasshoppers do
not have lungs. They take in air through tiny
holes on their bodies. Thesetiny holes arecalled
spiracles. All the spiracles are attached to an air Cockroach Grasshopper
tube called trachea. The air is exchanged from all
parts of body through these air tubes
Worms like earthworms and some other tiny creatures that live in
moist land breathe through their moist skin.

Earthworm

Let's Try 2
1. Read the following statements and write whether they are True or False.

a. During breathing, carbon dioxide is inhaled.

b. All animals eat the same kind of food.

C. Fish do not breathe.

d. A cockroach breathes through spiracles.

e. Fish breathe through gills
2. Answer the following questions in your notebook.
a. How do whales and dolphins breathe?

b. How do insects breathe?

c. If a whale comes to the surface to breathe in air, how does it breathe when it dives
under water?

Let's Find Out

Feeding in Animals
All living things grow. What do they require for their growth? They require energy to grow
and perform various body functions and they get this energy from food. Plants make their
food using energy from the sunlight. Animals and human beings also eat food to get energy

18 Mylestone Sclence-5
 Vdrious ctions. Do plants
interdependent for food or other
and a imals eat only one
Plants need requirements? kind of food?
Some animals,sunlight and air to Are they
like the lion or make their food. Animals
Based on the tiger, hunt other depend on
plants for their
food habits, animals for food. food.
depend on plants for food animals are classified into
goat, sheep, deer, are known different groups. The
as
elephant and giraffe. herbivores. Examples of animals which
Tigers, lions and cats herbivores are cow,
are depend on other
rabbit,,
known as carnivores. animals for their food, and
such
The animals that
eat both flesh-eating animals
crow, dog, fox and
plants and flesh of other
humans are some animals are called
omnivores.
examples of omnivores. Animals
like ratsChimpanzees,
are called rodents.
Most of the
rodents are and
Animals like hyena and birds like the herbivores, but a few are
omnivores.
squirrels
Scavengers. vulture feed on dead
organisms. They are known
All living things need food to as

stay alive.

Let's Try 3
Match the following.
a. lion
i. rodent
b. cow
ii. carnivore
C. squirrel
ii. herbivore
d. food
iv. interdependent
e.
plants and animals V. energy and work

Lef's Find Out 5r,

Movement in Animals
When we leavefood in open, we often observe that some
some
animals take it away. They
have sense
organs just like us and they use these organs for their
from one place to another
daily needs. Animals move
in search of food, shelter and
safety.
Animals live on land, air and water.
They are adapted to different habitats. However, their
characteristics differ as per the habitat they live in. They have different
body parts that enable
Animal Life
19
 them to move
13
from one place another. For example, snakes have ribs and bristles; fish
to
have fins; and birds have specially
adapted hollow bones. Animals have uhique body organs
which help them move.

Let's Try 4
Write down any four terms related to the word 'movement' in the web-chart
below:
provided

Movements

Land Animals

Land animals use their limbs for movement

Look at the above images. How many limbs do the animals in the above pictures have?
All the animals that move on land mostly hav four limbs.
The two in thefront are called
forelimbs, and the two at the back are called hindlimbs. Some animals such as
tigers, dogs
and cats use all four limbs to run, hop or walk, while others use their limbs to swim
or burrow.
A horse uses its four limbs for different activities and a rabbit has
padded toes for running
and large hindlimbs for hopping. Kangaroos and humans walk on their two
hindlimbs. These
animals have strong legs and can move fast.

20
Mylestone Science-5
 Reptiles like lizards and crocodiles crawl on land with the
help of their short legs. They crawl because they are not
able to lift their body up to the limbs. Snakes do not have

limbs, they move by curving their body and pushing it

against the ground. This helps the snake slide forward.

This movement is called slithering.
Crawling of a snake

Aquatic Animals

Have you ever wondered why we humans cannot stand barefoot in

cold water, stream or lake, but ducks can remain in water for hours?

Ducks have webbed feet to move around in water and they do not
have sensation in their feet so they do not feel anything

Duck

Similarly, a frog is able to swim in water and at the same time hop
on the land. They have webbed feet which helps them to swim,
but at the same time they also have hindlimbs to hop and jump
on land.

Frog

An octopus moves around with the help of its strong tentacles.

Turtles use their four padded limbs called paddles to swim.

Turtle

Fish have fins and a powerful tail which help them move in
water and keep balance. They use their fins for balancing,
changing direction and stopping.

Fish

Animal Life 21
Let's Try 5
Look at the picture and answer the following questions.

a. Which two parts help a fish swim?

b. Which part helps the fish breathe?

C. Which part does the fish use for balancing, changing direction and stopping?

How Does an Insect Move?

Cockroach Mosquito Dragonfly

You may have observed that some insects only walk while some have wings to fly. For
example,ants, bugs, lice and cockroaches walk, but mosquitoes, dragonflies and honeybees
fly. A grasshopper uses its hindlimbs for hopping and wings to fly.

Insects Movement

Ants, cockroaches, bedbug Use legs to walk

Uses powerful hindlimbs

Grasshopper to hop on the
ground

Dragonflies, houseflies Use wings to fly

22
Mylestone Science-5
Let'sTry 6 observations in the
and note down your
Observe any two insects in your surroundings
table given below.

Wings (present Colour of wings Flies or walks

Name of insect Number of legs
or absent)

Let's Find Out

How Birds Move?
have wings and
Have you ever wondered why we cannot fly like birds? Is it because birds
feathers? Why cannot we develop wings and start flying? What are the body parts that help
birds to fly high but not humans?

Birds have hollow and light bones that help them fly. Their
forelimbs are modified to wings and they fly by flapping their

wings which are covered with feathers.

The streamlined body shape helps them cut through the air as
they fly. They use their legs to perch on the branches of trees.
They also use them to walk or hop on the ground. Some birds
Birds flying high in the sky like ostrich or kiwi have weak wings and they cannot fly.

Let's Find Out

Migration
Sometimes food is hard to find in very cold, very hot or very dry seasons. ln such.conditions
animals move in_groups and cover large distances. This phenomenon is called migration.
Animals migrate to find food and water to escape from harsh weather conditions andto find
a safe place to raise their young ones. For example, the Arctic Tern breeds in the Arctic region
during summer, and then travels a distance of 17,000 km to the Antarctic region during winter.

Animal Life 23
They again go back to breed in the Arctic region after the winter ends
The Siberian cranes visit India every winter and can be seen in the Bharatpur Bird Sanctuary
and other bird sanctuaries. During summer, they go back to Siberia.
Mammals and insects also migrate. Certain types of whales migrate from the polar regionto
tropical oceans to breed during winter.

Let's Learn New Words

terfestrial animals: animals that live on land
blowhole: nostrils in whales and dolphins

spiracles: pores found on the body of insects used for breathing

forelimbs: front two limbs of animals

hindlimbs: two limbs attached to lower end of the body

fins: body partsin fish which help them swim

Let's Remember
The organs of breathing, feeding and movement in an animal are adapted to the
environment in which the animal lives.
Birds, reptiles and mammals breathe through their lungs. Fish and some other aquatic
animals have gills to breathe.

Insects have spiracles to breathe.

Animals can be herbivores, carnivores, omnivores or scavengers.

Animals move with the help of legs, fins or wings.

Some animals migrate long distances in search of food and shelter or to escape the
harsh weather conditions to breed.

24 Mylestone Science-5
Let's Try 7
Circle the correct answer.
1. Which of these can breathe through both lungs and skin?
a. humans b. earthworm

C. frogs d. fish
2. A snake moves by
a. using its forelimbs and hindlimbs

b. crawling on six legs

C. curving its body and pushing against the ground
d. using its hindlimbs

3. Which of these eats both plants and animals?

a. rabbit b. eagle
C. bear d. tiger
4. Birds fly because
a. they have hollow bones b. they have a light body
C. they have a streamlined body d. all of the above

Let's Try 8
Answer the following questions in your
notebook.
1. What are gills? What functions do they perform?
2. Why do carnivores have sharp pointed teeth?

3. List the features in birds which help them fly easily.

4. Describe the limbs of land animals.

5. Snakes do not have legs. How do they move?

6. How do insects breathe?

Animal Life 25
Discuss and Share
An Amazing Flying Machine
Hello! Iam a bee hummingbird. I am the world's smallest flying
bird. There are other varieties of hummingbirds too. They are
also small but not as small as I am. I am just 5 cm or almost 2
inches long. This is not the only unique feature that I possess. I
can flap my wings around 80 times in a second. It is so fast that
it seems like blurring to the observer's eyes. I can not only fly
upside down but also fly in the backward direction. I can keep
flying while having my food. This is why many people call me
an amazing flying machine.

Flying is not the only talent I possess but I help in plant's reproduction also. I visit more
than 1,000 flowers a day to drink their juice, nectar. While sucking the nectar, I also perform
pollination. Pollination is a very important process of the life cycle of plants. By this process,
plants reproduce. In this process, I shift pollen grains from one flower to another.
Besides drinking nectar, Ialso eat insects. l am different from other hummingbirds as I can eat
more than hlf of my weight every day, and I can drink almost eight times of my body
weight
every day. Because of my peculiar feeding habits, I live near gardens or areas rich in flowers.
l am found in many parts of America, but not in India. Sunbird in India is very much similar to
me. It also helps in the reproduction of plants through pollination. We together with other
tiny creatures like bees, butterflies and small birds are very good pollinators. We are very
much needed in nature to provide plenty of food to others.

Discuss the following questions with your partner and write the answers in your notebook.

1. The bee hummingbird is smaller thana . .

a. crow b. honeybee
C. normal hummingbird d. All of these

2. The wings of flying bee hummingbirds look blurry. Why?

3. Ifa bee hummingbird is of 5 grams, how much food can it eat in a day?
4. Which Indian bird is similar to the hummingbirds?

26
Mylestone Science-5
 5. Unscramble the given letters to make a meaningful term.
a.
a. Sweet juice of flowers
CANTRE

p. The process of transfer of pollen grains from one flower to another

OLPINLAOTIN
6. In the passage 'An Amazing Flying Machines, you have learned about the world's
smallest flying bird, bee hummingbird. Write a few sentences comparing and
contrasting the bee hummingbird with some other bird of your choice. Write at least
two points bringing out similarities with any other bird and also write at least two
points of differences.

We Care
India is one of the most biodiversity-rich zones. Brazil, Peru and Madagascar are a few other
countries that are rich in biodiversity. The Sanskrit name, 'prani', for animals is very close
to the word 'prana', means life force. These two words are related to each other and speak
a lot about how we regard our animal friends. There are many poems and mythological
stories written on friendship between animals and humans, and there are many animals
that humans worship.
1. Hornbill festival, celebrated in Nagaland, is one of the festivals named after animals
Like this, find out two more festivals which have been named after animals.

2. Suppose you are going to celebrate a festival like Hornbill festival. Write a story on
this festival mentioning the following points: animal that you choose, importance of
this animal to human beings and what do you like to do for this animal.

Many Indian families follow a custom of keeping a bowl of water and cereals for birds on

the windowsill or the terrace, especially on hot summer days. This way, they help birds in

surviving the hot and difficult summer season.

1. Discuss with your teacher, friends and family members to make a list by which you
can also help animals and birds.

2. Prepare a drama script to explain the uses and importance of animals in our daily
life.

Animal Life 27
 Chapter3

Bones and Muscles

Let's Begin
Ria was playing with her friends in the playground. While
playing, she slipped. Her parents immediately took her to
a doctor. Ria was in pain. The doctor asked them to get the
X-ray of the affected part. Ria started crying as she thought
that the doctor was going to give her an injection. The
doctor calmed her down and told her that taking an X-ray
is like taking a photograph without a camera. If we want to
take a photograph of our body from within, we use an X-ray
machine.
The doctor took the X-ray and put it on display. Ria was initially scared to see the image of
her shoulder. The doctor explained her that there was nothing to be scared of, as it was her
own body image from within. He further explained her that the arm is made of many white-
coloured hard substances known as bones. The doctor then showed her the image of the
bone which had broken when she fell down. The doctor put Ria's arm in a cast so that she
could not move it. He also told her that the broken bone would be fine in a few days.

Ria was amazed to see the images of her own bones. The doctor explained her that several
bones put together to make up the skeletal system in living beings. She now wants to
explore more on the bones of human body.

Let's Find Out

The Human Skeletal System
Have you ever imagined how would your body be without bones? You would be floppy like a
bean bag. Would you be able to walk, stand or run? No. Without bones and the
skeleton, you
would just be a mass of skin, falling on the floor Iike jelly.

28
Mylestone Science-5
Can you see how a metal or a
wooden frame has provided a shape to the kite and the umbrella
in the given images? It is
applicable to our bodies as well.
This is provided by a
hard framework made of
as skeleton. It
bones, known
protects the soft organs within our
body and
gives shape and strength to our body. A
framework of body
made up of bones which
gives our body a proper shape and
strength and protects the soft organs inside is known as the
skeletal system. Animals also have a skeletal
system. Kite
J
Umbrella

Let's Find Out

The Skeleton
Our body has number of soft parts. It
a
skull
is necessary to have a
hard framework
collar bone
supporting these parts. Otherwise, the body shoulder blade
will collapse.
This framework is provided humerus

by bones and is called the skeleton.

gives It breastbone
shape and strength to the body and protects
soft inner organs of ribs
our body such as heart
and lungs.

How many bones do spine radius

we have? Feel the
bones in your finger and ribs and hip bone
try counting
them. Do newly born babies and adults have ulna
the same number of bones?
No. New-borns have about 305
bones, but
adults have 206 bones. Sounds strange? finger bone
Does that mean we start losing bones as we
femur
grow? No. As we grow, some of the bones
join together and the number of bones
gradually decreases. fibula
tibia
Fromoutside, bones are smooth and hard
However, they are soft and spongy from
inside. What is inside a bone? The inner foot bone

Human skeleton
Bones and Muscles
29
 portion of a bone is called bone marrow, and this is the place
where blood cells of the body are made. spongy bone

Several bones can move. This happens in places where they are
hard bone
joined to other bones. Do you know how bones are joined? Bones
are joined by a strong and elastic material known as cartilage. blood vessels

The inside of a bone

Let's Try 1
State whether the following statements are True or False.
a. A body system contains several organs.
b. Bones are hard on the outside but soft inside.
C. An adult has 206 bones.

d. Skeletal system gives shape to the body.

Let's Find Out

What is Cartilage?
Feel your ear? Do you feel any hard body part here? It seems there is
no bone here. Isn't it?

Human ear

Do you feel something different between the earlobe

and the portion above it as you press them between
the fingers ? You do feel something on the upper part
bone
cartilage of the ear which is not as soft as the earlobe but also
not as hard as a bone, isn't it?
This is cartilage. This is also found in the joints of the
body.
Cartilage

30 Mylestone Science-5
Let'sTry 2
Answer the following questions in your notebook.

1. Which body part underneath your skin helps you to move?

2. What is the importance of bones in our body? Write the number of bones present in
an adult human body.
3. Bones are hard but you are still able to move several parts of your body. Explain how?
4. List down the importance of the skeletal system in the human body.

5. What is the function of cartilage?

Lef's Find Out

The Skeletal System
What is the difference between the skeleton and the skeletal system? Let us explain it with
the help of a car. If there are no tyres in your car, can it move? If tyres are there but there are
no gears or brakes, can it run? So, different parts of a car work together so that a car can run
smoothly.
In the same way, there are different parts in the skeleton system that work together to make
our body move. Such a system is known as the skeletal system. The human skeleton consists
of the following main parts.

The Skul
The picture given alongside is of a skeleton from the world's
oldest civilisation Indus Valley Civilisation. This skeleton
dates back to about 5000 years and was unearthed in a
cemetery in Rakhigiri of that time, which is now in Haryana.
Skeleton obtained from
Indus Valley Civilisation

Look at the skull given in the right side. The skull is found to have an
incision mark indicating that there were possibilities of brain surgery
methods during that time also.

The skull is the bony structure that surrounds and protects our brain.
There are 22 bones in the skull. All the bones are fixed except for the
lower jaw bone. The movement of thelower jaw helps us eat and speak. Skull

Bones and Muscles

31
 The fixed bones in the skull protect the most important organ brain. Skull bones are just
-

under the skin of our head. As shown in the image, the holes on the skull provide for our
eyes, nostrils, mouth and ears. Teeth are fixed into the jawbones.

Ribs
Take a deep breath and hold it for a little while. Feel your chest bone and backbone by gently
pressing the middle of the chest and middle of the back. Count as many ribs (bones of chest)
as possible. Observe the diagram given below and see if you can match your own ribs to
those shown in the diagram. We see that ribs are curiously bent and they join the chest bone
and the backbone.

The cage of bones around the chest is called the rib cage. It protects
ribs
the internal organs like the heart and the lungs. It is made up of
sternum
12 pairs of thin curved bones which are attached to the backbone
(also called vertebral column) at the back and to a flat bone, at the
vertebral
column front called sternum or breastbone. However, the last two
pairs
floating rib- of ribs are not attached to the backbone and, hence, are called
Ribs and rib cage floating ribs.

Let's Try 3
Answer the following.
a. What is a rib cage and which organs does it
protect?

b. Your brain in your head is

b. delicate organ. But if someone gives
a
head, does it get damaged? Explain your answer. you a slap on the

32
Mylestone Science-5
Backbone or Spine
Ask your friends to touch their toes without bending their knees. Starting from the neck, move
your fingers downwards on your friend's back. Do you feel any hard and solid substance arranged
in a column? What you feel is the backbone.
Brain
A series of 33 small bones forms the backbone of a human
body. These are called vertebrae. That is why backbone is also
called the vertebral column or spinal cord. It is a strong column
Spinal cord
extended from neck to tail. Spinal
nerves
The vertebrae are hollow in the centre and spinal cord passes
from the brain through this. By this, vertebrae protect the
spinal cord.
The vertebral column protects the spinal cord, supports the
head and serves as the point of attachment for the rib bones
the back.
Vertebral column of humans

Lef's Try 4
If the backbone had been made up of only one long bone instead of vertebrae, would you
be able to bend it?

Limbs

collar bone
shoulder blade Humans have two pairs of limbs: the forelimbs which constitute our
humerus arms and hindlimbs which constitute our legs.
Forelimbs are joined to the spine with the help of shoulders. The
arm is made up of two parts: the upper arm which has one long
radius
ulna bone called the humerus and the lower arm which has two bones
- the radius and the ulna.

Forelimb of a
human being

Bones and Muscles 33

The hindlimb or legs are also made up of two parts: the upper leg
and the lower leg. Both join together at the knee. The upper leg has
a thigh bone which is a powerful bone as it bears the weight of our femur
whole body and it is called femur. It is the longest and strongest bone
in our body. The lower leg has two bones, the tibia and the fibula.
The long bones are hollow and have a soft and fatty substancein tibia
them known as bone marrow. fibula

Hindlimb of a human
being
Let's Try 5
Answer the following questions.
a. Why is the backbone also called the vertebral column?

b. What is a vertebral column? How many bones is it made

up of? What is its function?

Let's Find Out

Joints
The point where two bones meet is called a
joint. The joints
bend, twist and turn. Ajoint has strong, tough and flexible help
us
material
called ligaments which hold the bones or
cartilages together.
Have you ever observed we are able to move a few
parts of our body
easily in various directions but some parts only in specific direction?
Why are we unable to move some parts of our body?
Joints
34
Mylestone Science-5
 in the centre.
Put a scale lengthwise on your hand such that your elbow is
Ask your friend to tie the scale to your hand.
Now try to bend your elbow.
Are you able to do it?
where two bones are joined together,
We are able to bend or rotate our body only in places
called joints.
like elbow, shoulder or neck. These places are
Bones are hard, so how are we able to bend our elbows?
of different bones joined together
Our arm is not made up of just one long bone. It is made up
connected. Thus,
the upper arm and the lower arm are
at the elbow. Elbow is a joint where
we can bend our arm at the elbow.

Let's Try 6 of human

the movement of different body parts
Complete the following table based
on

beings. One has been done for you.

Forward and backward
Body Rotates completely Does not move at all
movement
partially/does not rotate
part

Yes No, it moves

Neck Rotates partially

Wrist
Knee

Back

Elbow

Arm

Types of Joints
and immovable joints.
There are two types of joints- movable joints

35
Bones and Muscles
Movable Joints
The Ball and Socket Joint

Ball and socket joint in hip and shoulder region of human body

Roll a paper strip into a cylinder. Make a small hole in a rubber ball or a plastic ball and stick it
to the paper cylinder. Place the ball ina smal bowl. Now, try to rotate the bal. Does it rotate
freely inside the bowl? Does the paper cylinder also rotate with it?
Now, imagine that this paper cylinder is your arm and the ball at its end is like the part of your
shoulder to which your arm is joined. The rounded end of one bone fits into the hollow end
of the other bone. Such a joint allows movement in all directions and is known as ball and
socket joint. The shoulder and the hip regions also have the ball and socket joint.

Pivot Joint
The joint that joins the skull to the backbone is called pivot joint. It enables the head to move
up and down and sideways. It allows us to bend our head forward and backward and also
move it sideways. In a pivotal joint, a cylindrical bone rotates encased in a ring.

Pivot joint

36
Mylestone Science-5
Sliding Joint
Ankles and wrists have sliding joints where the bones can slide over each other. These joints

allow you to move your hand and foot from side to side as well as backward and forward.

Ankle
A
Sliding joints in ankle and wrist
Wrist

Hinge Joint
It is like the hinge of a door. It helps the bones to move in one direction. The elbow, knees,
fingers and toes have hinge joints. They can only move forward and backward.

Knee Elbow
Hinge joints in knee and elbow

Immovable Joints
The joints that cannot be moved are called immovable joints. The joint of the skull and the
joint between the ribcage and the breastbone are immovable joints.

Bones and Muscles 37

 Experiment 1

Aim: To understand how the bones provide support to our body and the role or
function of joints in our body

Material Required: Four sheets of paper, scissors, straws, gum/double tape/any

adhesive and pencil/pen

Procedure:

1. Take four sheets of paper. Make an impression of your palms on them and cut
out the impression.

2. Paste two of the cut-outs together using glue or any adhesive.

3. Now, take a few straws and cut them into 14 pieces of 2-3 cm each and five
pieces of 6-8 cm each.

38
Mylestone Science-5
 4. Take two straw pieces of 2-3 cm each and paste them at the impression of
thumb on the cut-out.

5. Take three straw pieces of 2-3 cm each and place them at the impression of

finger.
6. Repeat the same for all the fingers. Take reference from your hand by touching
it and opening and closing your fist. See your hand as a model and understand
the placement of straws by touching it, and opening and closing your fist.

7.
7 Now take five straw pieces of 6-8 cm each and paste them at the position of
palm using any adhesive.

88. Now take another cut-out of hand (without straws) and paste it on the cut-
out of hand on which you have pasted the straws. Join two cut-outs of hand

(without straws).
My Findings:
Compare and contrast both the hands (with or without straws) and write your
observations.

Bones and Muscles

39
Let's Try 7
State whether the following statements are True or False.
a. Femur is the longest bone in our body.
b. Joints occur wherever two bones meet.

C. Shoulders and hips are hinge joints.

d. Knees and elbows are ball and socket joints.
e. Wrists and ankles have sliding joints.

Lets Find Out

The Muscular System
Make a fist with one hand and bend your arm at the elbow as shown in the picture. Do you
see any change in your upper arm? Touch it with your other hand. Do you feel a swollen
region inside the upper arm? This is a muscle bulged due to contraction.

About half the weight of your body is that of the muscles.

They are made up of bundles of fibres and they make your
body move.

Now, bring your arm back to its normal position. What

happens to its muscle? Is it still contracted? arm
muscles
Muscles work in pairs. When one of them contracts, the Relaxed and contracted muscles

bone in that direction and the other muscle relaxes

moves

to move the bone in the opposite direction.

The relaxed muscle now contracts to pull the

bone in its position. A muscle can only pull, not push. Both muscles should work
original
together for a bone to move.

For example, our arm movement is controlled by two muscles, biceps and triceps. The
fibres called tendons.
muscles that move your body parts are attached to your bones by strong
muscles to work together. For example, you use around 15
Movements of our body require
muscles when you smile.

Mylestone Science-5
40
Type of Muscles

Voluntary Muscles
under our control.
legs have voluntary muscles as they
are
Our arms, neck, shoulders and

Involuntary Muscles
flow of
Some muscles help in breathing, movement of food in the stomach and intestine and
thus calledinvoluntary muscles. They are also known
blood. They work on their own and are

as smooth muscles.

Cardiac Muscles
our body
The muscles of the heart are called cardiac muscles. They pump blood to all parts of
and are involuntary in nature.

Let's Learn New Words

bone but not as hard as bone
cartilage: strong and elastic material almost like
vertebrae: a series of small bones that makes up the backbone

femur: thigh bone, the longest bone in our body

ligament: material that holds the bones or cartilage together

joints: points which connect bones

ribcage: cage of bones around the chest
tendons: strong fibres that join muscle to bone

muscles: soft tissues which help bones to move

Let's Remember
It has been three months and Ria's arm has almost recovered. During her visit to the
doctor, she understood the importance of various parts of the skeletal system and
their functions. The human body is made up of bones and muscles. Several bones are
connected through joints which help us move our body parts. Though she learnt it the
hard way, she is happy for all the knowledge she has gained.

Bones and Muscles 41

 The skeleton forms the framework of our body and protects the internal soft organs.
There are 206 bones in an adult human body.
The skull, ribs, backbone and the limbs constitute the skeletal system.
The skull protects our brain and the backbone protects our spinal cord.
A joint is a point where two bones meet.
Joints help our limbs in locomotion.
There are two types of joints -

movable and immovable joints.

Muscles hold bones together and make movement
possible
There are three types of muscles -voluntary, involuntary and cardiac muscles.

Let'sTry8
Answer the following questions in your notebook.

a. What is a joint?
b. Why are at least two muscles needed to move any joint?
C. Explain the structure of the ball and socket joint.
d. What is the difference between voluntary and involuntary muscles?

e. What is a skeletal system? Write two functions each of all the parts of the skeletal
system.

Discuss and Share

Mr Sharma always encourages his students to walk with their back straight and shoulders
backwards. He encourages them to play football or cricket every day during the
physical
education class. What values does Mr Sharma exhibit? Discuss with your partner and write
the answer in your notebook.

We Care
We see our grandparents usually complain of joint pain. Joint
old pain is very common in
age. Because of the joint pain in the knee area, they face problem in movement. We should
take care of our grandparents and ask them to exercise daily. We should also exercise
regularly to stay fit. Mention a few benefits of exercises and yoga.

42
Mylestone Science-5
Discovering Diverse Content Through
Random Scribd Documents
There was the blue moon of the Orient. There, for the bold, were
the sharp knives, and there, for those who would patiently seek, was
the lamp of young Aladdin. I think Gina must have found it.
She loved Poplar, and, loving so, she commanded love, as you will
learn if you inquire concerning her. When she danced it was Poplar
that she expressed, and Poplar worshipped her for it.
At twelve years old she was dismissed from the local Board School
for the sound reason that the teachers confessed their inability to
teach her anything more. She was too sharp for them. Her morality
she summed up in answer to a teacher’s question as to what she
understood by religion.
“I believe in enjoying yourself, dears, and enjoying other people as
well, and making them enjoy you.”
That was her creed, and as to her adherence to it and the efficacy
of it you must ask the people of Acacia Grove and thereabouts. Old
dad shrugged his shoulders, and in the saloon of the Blue Lantern
he explained:
“Ah—when you’ve got anything as hot as our Gina, it don’t do to
try and learn ’em things. You can’t. They knew it all centuries before
you was born. And what they don’t know they’ll find out without
bothering anyone. Give ’em their heads—that’s all you can do with
that kind of kid. Stand aside; she’ll develop herself.”
Gina was thirteen years and six months when news was brought
one morning to the narrow fastnesses of Acacia Grove that old dad
had been killed in a street accident. At that moment she was
standing at the gate nursing Philip, the next-door baby.
She stared. She caught her breath as from a sharp blow. Her face
was, for the first and only time in her life, expressionless. Then, with
a matter-of-fact movement, she deposited Philip on the cold kerb,
looked up, addressed the eternities, and for one minute told God, in
good set terms, exactly what she thought about Him. When thus
relieved, she shrugged her little shoulders and gathered up the baby.
 “Ah, well. Hearts are trumps. Globe Polish is the best. The Lord
Mayor’s coach-man says so, Philip of Macedon. Looks from here,
Philip of Macedon, as though I’d have to get busy.”
A week after the funeral, she stood in her dingy bedroom, and
posed herself before the mirror with a graceful egotism. The slender
stockinged legs looked that morning singularly pert and self-
sufficient. The black satin jacket had an air of past adventure amid
large things. She adjusted the black lace hat the tiniest shade to the
left of the luscious curls, and nodded.
“Well. Something’s got to be done, and if I don’t do it no one else
will. Don’t believe in waiting for your ship to come in. Only thing to
do is to get a bally boat and row out to meet it. Laugh and the world
laughs with you. Weep and you’ll get a red nose, Gina, my darling.
Now off we go to make ourselves as welcome as a snowflake in
hell.”
An hour later she was a member of the Casino Juveniles, under
the direction of Madame Gilibert, and three hours later was hard at
work rehearsing.
Many folk of Poplar must have experienced only a mixed sorrow at
the sudden end of Batty Bertello. For if the old dad had not gone out
so suddenly Gina would never have been forced to start work to
support Mumdear; and had she not started just at that moment, she
would never have become a public character; and in that event we
should have lost—what should we have lost?
Well, everything that in those days made life worth living. For it
was Gina, that mop-haired, fragile baby, who taught thousands of us
how to live.
And her beginnings as a public character were in this wise.
The turn of the Casino Juveniles consisted of vocal soli, concerted
numbers, pas seuls, and ensembles, in the costumes of the early
nineteenth century. It was entitled Old-fashioned Flowers (you may
remember it), and, with a nice catholicity, it embraced the minuet
and the pavane no less than the latest coon song and dance. At the
end of the first show, Madame expressed herself as well satisfied
with Gina.
“Seems to have a real—what you might call flare—for the stage.
Understands what she’s doing. Made for a dancer. Let’s hope she
don’t grow.”
For the tragedy of the good lady’s life was that her children would
grow, and every two years or so they had to be weeded out and
new little girls laboriously trained to take the places of those who
possessed neither the divine grace of the juvenile nor the self-
assurance of the adult. She had a much-furrowed face, and swore
hybrid oaths at electricians and stage hands. They understood.
For the first week, Gina thoroughly enjoyed herself, and, true to
her creed, forced the rest of the company to enjoy her.
Sharp at five every afternoon, she had to appear at the centre
where the private omnibus collected the children and whisked them
away to the first hall, where they were an early number—on at
seven-five—for the first house. Then, out of that hall to another at
the far side of London, where they were a concluding number for
the first house. Then back to the starting-place for the second
house, and off again to finish at the distant hall. At about one in the
morning she would trip home to supper, which Mumdear left in the
kitchen oven. So to bed. At ten o’clock next morning Mumdear would
bring her a cup of tea and a cigarette, and at about noon she would
descend, unless a rehearsal were called for eleven.
Then, one brave night, came her chance to display that Ginaesque
quality that made her loved and admired by all who knew her. In a
low river-side hall in the Blackhall direction the Casino Juveniles
were the bill-footers. This hall was a relic of the old times and the
old manners—a plaintive echo of the days when the music hall was
little more than a cave of harmony, with a saw-dusted floor, a husky
waiter, and a bull-throated chairman. Efforts to bring it up to date by
renovation and structural alteration had only had the effect of
emphasising its age, and its threepenny gallery and its fourpenny pit
told their own tale.
By this time Gina had, by some subtle means, unknown to herself
or to others, established herself as leader of the Casinos. Her
compelling personality, her wide knowledge of “things” as well as
matters of general interest, and her confident sagacity, had,
together, drawn even those youngsters who had been two years
with the turn to look to her as a final court of appeal in all questions
and disputes. They listened to her ideas of dance, and took cues
from her that rightly should have come from the titular leader.
Perhaps it was the touch of devil which alternately smouldered and
flamed in Gina’s eyes that was the real secret of her domination of
her fellows; a touch that came from the splash of soft Southern
blood in her veins, bequeathed by a grandfather who, in his early
twenties, mislaid his clasp-knife somewhere between the ribs of a
neighbour on the island of Sicily, and found it expedient to give up
the search for it and come to England. This languorous, sun-loved
blood, fused with the steady blood of the North, resulted in a
mixture which raced under her skin with the passion and energy of a
greyhound, and gave her that mysterious élan which decided, as
soon as she could walk, that she was born for dance.
On the big night—a Wednesday: early-closing night—the hall was
playing to good business. It was lit with a suave brilliance. Gallery
packed, pit packed, stalls packed, and the gangway by the babbling
bar packed close with the lads of the water-side—niggers, white
toughs, and yellow men.
The air was mephitic: loud with foot and voice and glass. It stunk
of snarling song. Solemn smokes of cut plug swirled in a haze of lilac
up to the dreary rim of gallery and the chimera of corpse faces that
swam above it. At nine-ten Gina and the rest of the Casinos stood in
the wings, watching the turn that preceded them on the bill—Luigi
Cadenza, the world-renowned Italian tenor: salary three guineas per
week for thirteen shows a week—who was handing Santa Lucia and
O sole mio to an indifferent audience; for in vaudeville it is the early
turn that gets the bird. Near them stood the manager, discussing the
Lincolnshire probables with the stage manager. Much dirty and faded
scenery, alleged fireproof, was piled to the flies, and on either side
were iron doors and stone staircases. Everywhere were strong
draughts and crusted dirt.
Suddenly, from behind a sweep of canvas, leapt an antic figure,
dishevelled, begrimed, inarticulate. It plucked the manager by the
sleeve.
“Wire’s fused, sir. Caught oner the flies. Blazing like old hell.”
The manager jerked his neck at the stage manager.
“Ring down!”
A bell tinkled, and the shabby purple curtain dropped on the
world-renowned tenor in the midst of his Santa Luci-i-i-a, and
smothered him with confusion and with its own folds.
The neck jerked again.
“Ring down safety, too.”
He shot a hand to the telephone, rang through to the orchestra
and spoke two words.
The conductor in front saw the flash of the light at his desk. He
bent to the receiver. Two words snapped from it: The King. He
replaced the receiver. His baton fell, and the symphony of Santa
Lucia dribbled away to rubbish. He mouthed at his leader: The King.
He rose in his chair and tapped; and the band blared the first bar of
the National Anthem when again the bell tinkled. Again he snatched
the receiver: “Cut The King,” snapped a blasphemous voice. “Keep
going on Cadenza.”
Behind, things were happening.
“Where’s that damn ’lectrician?” The manager appealed, exhorted
and condemned. The electrician, having carried the bad news, had
vanished; but the typhoon of language whirled him back again.
 “’Sall right, guv’nor. ’Sall right now. We got it under. You can ring
up again.”
But it was too late. The sudden dropping of the curtain, the
incipient glide and recovery of the safety, the cessation and hurried
resumption of the music, had disturbed the house. There were
sounds of many moving feet, an uneasy rustle, as when a multitude
of people begin to pull themselves together. Then the inevitable fool
made the fool’s remark.
“There’s something wrong somewhere. Fire, shouldn’t wonder.”
That word did it.
The house rose to its feet. It swayed in two vast presses to right
and left. A woman screamed. Feet scraped and stamped. The
chuckers-out bawled:
“Order, there. Kepp yeh seats, cancher! Nothing ain’t wrong!”
The conductor rose and faced the house.
“Resume your seats, please. There’s no danger of any kind. The
band will now play Hiawatha. Give ’em a few chords!” he called to
his brass and drums, and half-a-dozen tantararas drowned the noise
of the struggles and counter-struggles of those who would go and
those who would urge them to stay.
A panicky stripling, seeing a clear way, vaulted the partition
between pit and stalls, and was promptly floored by one on the jaw
from Hercules in uniform. He howled. Stalls struggled to see him,
and the pit pushed the stalls back. Many women screamed. They
were carried out, kicking. Men told other men that there was nothing
the matter. They clambered on seats to say it. They struck with fist
and boot other men who disagreed with them. The yellow and black
men dashed hither and thither, receiving many blows but never
ceasing to run. They did not know for what or from what they ran.
They ran because they ran. A group of lads raided the bar. They
helped themselves and they smashed many glasses and bottles. The
chuckers-out became oathful and malevolent. They hit right and left.
 In the wings, the manager was dumb. His mouth had vomited the
entire black vocabulary. He had nothing more to say. The skirts of
his dress coat had the appearance of two exhausted tongues. The
position of his tie showed that he was a man smitten and afflicted:
one who had attempted large things while knowing himself to lack
the force necessary to achieve them; one who had climbed the
steeps of pain to the bally limit; one who was no longer a man but a
tortured organism.
“Billie,” he cried to the red-nose bill-topper, “Billie, for Christ’s sake
go on, and quiet ’em, there’s a good chap. This is the sack for me, if
there’s a panic.”
“No good, old boy. Sorry. Can’t do anything with a mixed gang like
yours. Nearly got the blasted bird just now.”
“Well—you—Miss Gutacre. For the Lord’s sake—go on. Give ’em
anything. Give ’em He tickled the Lady’s Fancy.”
“Oh, Jack, old man, I daren’t,” whimpered the stout soubrette. “I
couldn’t hold ’em. I’ve never faced a gang like that. If Billie won’t go,
I won’t. ’Tain’t fair to ask me.”
“Well, you’re a couple of damn devils, that’s what you are—I beg
pardon—I mean. No, but, look here.... If——”
He broke off, suddenly aware that someone was peremptorily
agitating his coat-tails.
“What the blazes d’you want, kid?”
“I’ll go on, sir,” said Gina placidly.
“You? What the heaven d’you think a shrimp like you can do?”
“I can hold ’em, sir. I know I can. Bet you what you like. Turn me
loose, and see! Ring the orchestra for La Maxixe, one verse and
dance.”
“Mr Catanach!” A boy in a disordered uniform sprang from
nowhere. “You’re wanted here—quick.”
 The manager swung four ways at once, unable to go one way for
thought of the others. Then he gave two orders to the stage
manager.
“Ring through for the Masheesh. Then send that kid on.”
Gina was one of those delightful people who believe in impulse
rather than in consideration. What she had proposed to the manager
was an impulse of the moment; it simply didn’t bear thinking about.
She could hear the complaints, loud and cruel, of that brute which
she had undertaken to tame—she heard scream and roar; stamp of
nailed feet; fury of blow against blow; temper against temper; the
fall of glass; the wail of the victim, the howl of the aggressor.
But now, through the clamour, there came to her, faint and sweet
and far away, the ecstatic wail of La Maxixe, swelling insistently as
the curtain swung up. The first bars settled her fears. The music
stole into her blood and possessed every nerve and tissue of her
eager little body. It was in her feet and her hands and her heart. The
stage manager gave her a gentle shove.
“Get on, Kiddie. You got a rotten rough house. Good luck.”
With a toss of her yellow head and a stamp of impetuous feet she
dashed on. Along the stage she charged, in animal grace and
bravery, once, twice, with loose heel dancing, and noted with
approval that the clamour was a little less in volume and that many
faces were turned to the stage to look at this small figure, immature
yet cunningly finished. With as much clatter as her furious little
shoes would produce, she ran to the back-cloth. The dust rose in
answering clouds and was blown into the auditorium, where it
mingled with the opiate haze and was duly swallowed by the gaping
ones. The music surged over the footlights in a compelling flood.
The chef d’orchestre had caught the idea, and she could see that he
was helping her. The fiddles tossed it to her in a tempest of bows,
the brass and wood-wind blared it in a tornado, the drum insisted on
it, and, like a breaker, it seemed to rise up to her. Before her opened
a cavern of purple, stung with sharp lamps in the distant dusks. It
swayed and growled and seemed to open a horrid mouth. But
between her and it, she thanked her Heavenly Father, was the
music, a little pool of dream, flinging its spray upon her. The stage
seemed drenched in it and, seizing the tactful moment, she raced
down to the footlights and flung herself into it, caressing and
caressed by it, shaking, as it were, little showers of sound from her
delighted limbs. Every phrase of its wistful message was reflected in
that marvellously expressive form, rosy and slender and taut. You
would have said that each pulse of her body was singing for joy of it,
and when her light voice picked up the melody with:

“Oh, meet me in the Val-ley

The hap-py Val-ley,”

interpolated with back-chat to the front rows of the stalls, there was
a movement towards repose and attention to this appealing picture.
“Come on, Charl, while there’s a chance, case there’s a fire.”
“No; ’alf a mo’, Perce. Ain’t no fire. I’m going to watch this. Looks
like being funny. Got some pluck, y’know, that youngster.”
She stamped along the stage in a cloud of lace and tossing frock;
then, seeing that they were still moving and, in the far reaches,
struggling, she loosened her heel and suddenly—off went one shoe
to the wings, prompt side. Off went the other to the wings, o.p. This
bit of business attracted the attention of Charl and Perce and others.
They closed in. Now it was heel-and-toe dancing, and suddenly a
small hand shot to her knee. Off came a little crimson garter. With
an airy turn of her bare and white-powdered arm she sent it
spinning into the stalls.
“Scramble for it, darlings!”
 “I’ll—tell—you—how I love you—
Down in the Valley.”

The wicked little head ogled, now here, now there.

They scrambled, and while they scrambled and she danced, she
bent to her right knee, and off came a blue garter, and away that
went, too.
“Share and share alike, old dears.”
This time she had the pit as well.
“My word. She’s a corker, eh?”
“I should say so.”
“Quite right, Augustus,” she cried. “There isn’t a fire here, but I’m
hot enough to start one. I love my molten lava, but what price
Gina?”
They chuckled. They cheered. They chi-iked.
“Gaw—fancy a kid like that.... If she was a kid of mine I’d learn ’er
something.”
In the vaudeville phrase, she had got ’em with both hands.
The lights died down again. The turmoil was confined to the
gallery. A lone chucker-out implored them to observe that everything
was all right and “Order, please, for the artiste.” The Maxixe
swallowed him up.
“Come along, boys!” cried Gina. “Chorus, this time. Now then—
one—two——
 “‘I’ll ... Meet ...
You ...
In ... the
Valley....’”

Very uncertainly and timidly a few at the back of the hall picked it
up. They hummed it in the self-conscious voice of the music-hall
audience before it is certain that it is not alone. The next few lines
were taken with more confidence, and by those in front as well, and
the last lines, encouraged by the band and the shrill abandon of
Gina, they yelled defiantly, exultingly, with whistles and cheers for
the kid.
Those standing up were pressed forward as those behind strove to
catch her back-chat with stalls and orchestra.
“Holler, boys,” she cried, shaking her dusty golden head from side
to side. “Holler! All together—tenors—basses—Worthingtons. More
you holler the more money I get. And if I don’t take some home to
my old man to-night I shall get it where Susie wore the beads!
Holler, boys: it’s my benefit! Edison-Bell record!”
And they did holler. Away they went in one broad roar. There was
no doubt as to whether Gina had fulfilled her promise of holding
them. There was no doubt as to whether she had a stage
personality. That holler settled it. Gina’s vocation lay in the stress
and sacrifice of the vulgar world.
“My word, she’s a little goer, eh?”
“You’re right. At that age, too! Fast little cat. She wants a
spanking. And if she was a kid o’ mine she’d get it.”
“How old is she?”
“Fourteen, they say.”
“Lord, she’ll be a corker in a year or two’s time.”
 “Year or two’s time. Hot stuff now if you ask me.”
Perhaps she was. But she had saved the situation. She had
averted a panic. She had saved the loss of life inseparable from a
theatre stampede. And she knew it. As the audience settled down to
be amused by her, or by the next turn for whom she had prepared
the way, she gave the conductor the cue for the coda, and, with a
final stamp of those inspired feet, she leapt into the wings, where
the rest of the Casinos awaited her. She was gasping, with drawn
face. Two light blue stockings, robbed of their garters, were slipping
half-way down her delicately rounded legs. The dust from the stage
had gathered on her warm arms. She was plainly “all gone.” But
there was a light in her eye and that in her manner that shrieked:
“What did I tell you?”
The manager came to meet her.
“You glorious kid!”
Pertly she looked up at him.
“Yes, ain’t I? Going to push a boat out for me?”
“Push a boat out?”
“Yes; I’m dry after that. Mine’s a claret and soda.”
He rumpled his hair to bring it into keeping with his unhappy
evening-clothes. He gestured operatically. He embraced the
universe. He addressed the eternal verities.
“I’m damned,” he exclaimed, “I’m damned if I don’t book that kid
for six months.”

He kept his promise. She was booked at three pounds per week
for six months, and she thought she was in heaven. She had never
dreamed that there was so much money in the world. Then there
was a hurrying to and fro in Acacia Grove. She had to work up an
act of her own and provide her own make-up box and dresses. In
the former she was assisted by Madame Gilibert and the chef
d’orchestre; in the latter by Mumdear and the whole female
population of Acacia Grove. Band parts had to be arranged and
collected, each instrumental part secured in a neat stiff cover,
engraved in gilt letters:
GINA
Piccolo
and
GINA
Cornet
Madame Gilibert sent invitation cards to all managers, and even
booked one of the inch-square spaces on the back cover of The
Encore, where Gina’s picture duly appeared:
GINA
The Marvellous Child Dancer
The Pocket Kate Vaughan
All com. Gilibert
amid that bewildering array of faces which makes the cover of that
journal so distinctive on the bookstall and so deeply interesting to
the student of physiognomy and of human nature. So she started as
a gay fifth-rate vaudevillian.
A queer crowd, the fifth-rate vaudevillians. They are the outcasts.
Nobody wants them. They live in a settlement of their own, whose
boundaries are seldom crossed by those from the sphere of
respectability. They are unconsidered. They appear; they pass;
unmourned, unhonoured and unremembered. The great actor of the
“legitimate” is knighted; the musical comedy star is fêted and
received everywhere by the Best People; even the red-nose star of
the halls is well seen. But the unsuccessful amusers of the public—
their portion is weeping and gnashing of teeth. They are by turns
gay and melancholy, with the despairing gaiety of the abandoned,
the keen melancholy of the temperamental. They are the people
who bring us laughter, who help us to forget. They invent and sing
songs that put a girdle round the globe, that bring men cheerfully
together in Singapore and Tobago and Honolulu and Trinidad, and
are shouted under skies East and West and South; and their reward
is neither here nor there; not applause or glory or motor cars or a
hundred pounds a week. No; four pounds a week is theirs, with
reduced rates on the railway and expenses double those of any
workman or clerk. To the thoughtful person there is something
infinitely pathetic in this; but by the mercy of God your fifth-rate
vaudevillians are not thoughtful people. They live in, for, and by the
moment; and, be their lives what they may, they are happy; for
theirs is the profound wisdom of perpetual youth.
Gina’s six months were filled either at the Blackwall house or at
other independent halls, not controlled by the syndicates, to which
her manager leased her. When not working—for the twenty-six
weeks were to be filled as and when she was called—she spent her
time in inspecting other shows and dancers, by the simple use of her
professional card. From time to time she varied her turn, as dictated
by her own moods and the vagaries of the management. Sometimes
she would dance excerpts from Coppèlia or Sylvia; sometimes
Dvorâk’s Humoreske or L’Automne Bacchanale, or odds and ends
from French and Russian music. But it was the sparkling sun-soaked
melodies of the South, laughing of golden days and silver nights,
white towns and green seas, that really held her; for to her music
was melody, melody, melody—laughter, quick tears, the graceful
surface of things; movement and festal colour. By instinctive choice
she had already taken to her heart all Italian music—Pagliacci, La
Bohème, Rusticana, Manon, and much of the humbler Neapolitan
stuff that somehow finds its way to London. And what music was to
her, so was life, and so she interpreted it to others.
Whenever she was billed, all Poplar crowded to see her; and there
are still many who remember with high gratitude this lovely flower
from their own gutters, and the little escapes from their sorrows that
she found for them. They still remember how, passing them in the
street, she, clear and steady as the dew at dawn, would but look
upon them with roguish nonchalance, compel smiles from them and
leave them feeling richer and stronger.
“That girl’s got a heart,” they would say. She shook them from
pondering on their problems, lifted them into a rare, bold
atmosphere, taught them how to laugh and how to feast; carried to
their hearts little bouquets of solace smelling of April and May. She
seemed to be born afresh each morning, so sharp and undimmed
were her delight and wonder in life. She lit the whole of Poplar with
her personality. The flashing of her number in the electric screen
was the signal for handfuls of applause. Even those of her audience
who had never before seen her went about their routine next day
feeling better by remembering her. She splashed colour on their
drabbery. She forced them to forget old fusty creeds of conduct, and
awoke echoes in them of things that should not have been
forgotten; fused into the thin body of their days something ripe and
full and clustering; something, as they said, that gave ’em things to
think about where before they had been fed up. She tempted them
with the lure of the moment, and they followed and found that it
was good. She opened new doors to them, showing them the old
country to which to-day excursions are almost forbidden; the
country of the dear brown earth and the naked flesh, of the wine-
cup and flowers and kisses and Homeric laughter. She could have
made a Calvinist laugh at sin. Young and wise and understanding,
she would sprinkle upon it the dew of her kindly smile, and what had
been bare and reprehensible a moment ago was then something
tender and full of grace. Through her, all little lapses and
waywardnesses became touched with delicacy. We live, we love, we
die. A little while we sing in the sun, and then ... we are gone. So
let’s be kind to one another; let’s forgive everything; there’s always
an excuse. That was the Ginarian philosophy.
Twice every night she danced, and never once did she seem to
“slack.” After the applause welcoming her number, silence would fall
on the house. The hall would be plunged sharply in a velvet gloom,
through which the lights of the orchestra would gleam with subtle
premonition. At a quick bell the band would blare the chord on, and
the curtain would rush up on a dark blank stage. Then from between
the folds of the back-cloth would steal a wee slip of a child in white,
to stand poised like a startled faun. Three pale spot-lights would
swim from roof and wings, drift a moment, then pick her up,
focusing her gleaming hair and alabaster arms.
With the conductor’s tap the hall would be flooded with the ballet
music of Delibes, and the dance would begin, and Gina would turn,
for our delight, the loveliest pair of legs in Poplar. On the high vast
stage, amid the crashing speed of the music, and the spattering fire
of the side-drums, she would seem so fragile, so lost, so alone that
one almost ached for her. But if she were alone at first, it was not so
when she danced. At the first step she seemed to people the stage
with little companies of dream. She gave us dance—and more than
dance; no business of trick and limelight, but Infant Joy
materialised, the lovelier because of its very waywardness. She was
a poem. She was the child—naughty and bold and hungry for the
beauty of life—and, through her, the audience would touch finger-
tips with all that was generously pure and happy. Many calls she
would have at the end of her turn, and the people thought they
were applauding her skill as a dancer. But a few of us knew better.
There may have been finer artists. There may have been more
finished dancers. There may have been more beautiful children. But
certainly never was there another woman or child who so touched
her surroundings with herself, so held her audience as to send
people away, full—they knew not how—of the intense glee of living.
This little girl spoke to them in a language they knew, and thereby
achieved the highest purpose of all art; she made others happy and
strong. She changed their smiles to scowls; made them glad to meet
one another. Strangers were known to speak to strangers under the
spell of her dancing. Everything that is young and fresh and lovely
and brave was in her message. She did so enjoy it all. That elfish
little face, that lyrical body, and those twinkling toes made for the
manager of the dirty hall a small fortune. Nightly she flung herself in
delicate abandon through her dances, and her laugh thrilled and
tickled you as does the best and gayest music. It was not the
laughter of frivolity, for frivolity is but the corpse of joy; but that
finer laughter expressing the full acceptance of life and all that it
gives us of tears and laughter; hoping nothing, fearing nothing, but
rejoicing, with sweet cynicism, in everything. It is the most heroic
front that man can present to the gods that be, and Gina taught us
what no school could teach us; she taught us how to wear this
armour and, with its protection, to play the great game.
All Poplar loved her. The manager loved her, the stage hands loved
her, the door-keeper loved her, even her agent loved her—but unless
you are of the profession, you will not appreciate the boundless
significance of that. And the conductor ... the young conductor
worshipped her. He had been on his knees to her ever since that
great first night. It was delicious agony for him to conduct for her. It
was an irritation when her turn did not get the masses of applause
that belonged to her; it was a still deeper irritation when the
houseful of louts roared their appreciation. At nights he wept for her.
Her face was a flower which he watered with his tears, and day by
day she grew for him more and more lovely and to be desired. He
had told her that he was a broken-hearted man, since the only
woman he had loved, when he was eighteen, had deceived him.
Gina thereafter named him the Scorched Butterfly, and would solace
him with kisses.
“Makes me sick,” he used to say to his first fiddle, “when I think
that anything so—you know—kind of ... lovely ... as that should ever
have to die. To think that all that ... er ... you know ... glorious little
body ... should ever ... er ... stop living. Don’t seem right. Seems like
a blasted outrage to me. Ought to live for ever—anything as lovely
as that. Gives me the fair fantods. And yet—of course—she will die,
same as all the blasted clods and rotters like you and me. Before
long, too, I shouldn’t wonder. Got a kind of feeling that she will,
somehow. Every time I look at her I think of it. Makes me damn sick
with things. Wonder what it’s all for—all this damn game of living?”
What Gina did to Poplar generally, she did also, in a more exact
degree, to her immediate circle. She took Acacia Grove in hand and
woke it up. She taught it how to release the flesh from its bondage
and revel in the bliss of mere living. There were suppers—or rather
Suppers—with the boys from one or other of the halls as guests, and
cheap wine instead of beer, and sometimes a sinister little bottle of
liqueur; and kisses and caresses were no longer venial sins, but little
delicacies that went round the tables at these festivals as naturally
as the cruet. And because Gina smiled and extolled it, they
approved; and how they hastened to condemn and abolish all that
upon which she frowned! She first started on Mumdear, and brought
her away from the seventies and eighties into these times.
“Now, Mumdear, pull yourself together, and listen to your little
Gina. In some places the younger generation knocks at the door, but
in this house it’s going to knock the bally door down and walk right
in. You’re outmoded. You’ve got to sit up and take notice of things
more, especially of me. Don’t be a back number. Come forward to
the front of the bookstall. Burn that bonnet. Sell those clothes. In a
word, pull yourself together. If you don’t, I shall kill you, and pin you
to a cork, wings extended.”
And when Mumdear protested that really Gina was too young to
talk like that, Gina took no notice.
“Fourteen is as fourteen does, Mumdear; and what I don’t know
about things a girl ought to know has been torn out of the book. I’ve
been through things with a small tooth-comb, and I know what’s
there. I know the words and the music. I’ve read the book and seen
the pictures. I’ve got perfect control of the ball. Brace up, old
darling, and watch your Gina. It’s a wise mother who knows more
than her own daughter.”
Thereafter there were no more newspapers for tablecloths; no
more scramble suppers; no more slovenliness; no more cheap and
nasty food; no more stodgy teas. The art of the Bertello home at
that time was represented by oleographs after originals of Marcus
Stone and the Hon. John Collier. Gina burnt them, and hung up
cheap but serviceable reproductions of Whistler, Manet and Renoir.
She taught Mumdear to be truly Bohemian and to entertain the boys
from the profession. Mumdear blossomed anew. One final protest
she ventured.
“But, Gina, duckie, we can’t afford to be ikey.”
“Ikey?” snapped Gina. “Who’s going to be ikey, my lamb? It isn’t a
question of affording or of being ikey. It’s a question of being
comfortable. It won’t cost any more to have flowers on the table and
to eat something besides beef and mutton—probably less. And as for
being ikey—well, when you catch me going up in the air I’ll be much
obliged if you’ll stick pins in me so’s I can explode.”
As she ruled Mumdear, so did she rule others. At fourteen she had
the mature carriage of womanhood—a very valuable asset in her
profession. She could hold her own everywhere in the matter of
back-chat, and there were none who attempted liberties a second
time. It is doubtful if she had ever, at any age, had a period of
innocence, using the word in the sense of ignorance. She had that
curious genius for life by which the chosen divine its mysteries
immediately where others perforce wait on long years of experience.
As she herself expressed it, she knew her way about all the streets
and wasn’t going to be driven down the wrong one by any son of a
gun. She might not be clever, but she thanked God she was clean.
Thus for twelve months she scattered laughter and love and
kindness around Poplar, Shadwell, Limehouse and Blackwall,
carolling along her amiable way, joy as her counsellor, courage as
her guide. Her curl-clad face at this time carried the marks of the
fatigue peculiar to those temperamental subjects who spend
themselves to the last ounce in whatever they set their hearts to—be
it amusement, or love, or work. They live at top pitch because
nothing else is possible to them. Gina’s face, drawn though it was,
and permanently flushed, danced always with elfin lights, and never
were her limbs in repose. Even in sleep she was strangely alive, with
the hectic, self-consuming energy of the precocious.
Then, as suddenly as she appeared, she disappeared, and over
everything there fell a blank dismay. The light died from the streets.
Laughter was chilled. The joy of living withered as at a curse.
Something tender and gay and passionate had been with us;
something strange and exquisitely sweet was gone from us; and we
grew sharply old and went about our work without any song or jest
or caress. Only we thanked God and the grey skies that it had been
given to us to recognise it while it was there.
There was some speculation, and at last, because she was so
much a part of Poplar and we of her, the truth was made known
sorrowfully and reverently.
A hurried night journey in a cab to a lying-in hospital; and this
lovely child, fifteen years old, crept back to the bluebell or the
daffodil which had lent her to us. All that remains to us is her
memory and that brave philosophy of hers which was sobbed out to
a few friends from the little white bed in the maternity home.
“Life’s very beautiful. It’s worth having, however it ends. There’s
so much in it. Wine and things to eat. Things to wear. Shops to look
at. Coming home to supper. Meeting people. Giving parties. Books to
read. Music to hear.
“I think we ought to be so happy. And so kind. Because people
suffer such a lot, don’t they?
“I’ve not been bad, Mumdear. I’m only in love with everything and
everybody. They’re all so ... oh, sweet—and all that. I’m not bad.
I’ve only loved life, and when things tempted me I said Yes. It’s so
easy to say No to temptation. Any coward can do that. Kiss me a
little, Mum. I’m so tired.
“I hope I haven’t been mean or greedy or cruel. I love the boys
and girls I work with, and I love the music I dance to, and ... Poplar.
“I don’t know whether I’ve kept the Ten Commandments. Don’t
much care. But if ever I’ve hurt anyone, if ever I’ve been unkind, I
hope they’ll forgive me. Because ... I ... love them so....
“Mumdear ... ask them for some more of that cocaine ... cos ... it
... it hurts ... so.”
 There is a grave in East Ham cemetery which the suns and
showers seem to love, so softly they fall about it. The young musical
director who had presaged her ending and expressed himself as
feeling sick that so fragrant a flower should ever come to die, leaves
bunches of violets there once a week. For it was he who brought her
to the dust.
 The Knight-Errant

You may know Henry Wiggin on sight: Henry, the sloppily robed,
the slippery faced, with hands deep in pockets, shuffling along the
Limehouse streets, hugging the walls in modest self-effacement, one
eye sweeping the scene before him, the other creeping sinuously to
the rear; Henry, the copper’s nark, the simple, the unsuspecting,
knowing not the ways of deceit or the speech of the unrighteous.
But Henry has of late become outmoded. After fifteen years of
narking he finds that he is getting stale; he is a back number. A new
generation has arisen, and with it a new school of nark diplomacy
with principles very complex. Business has fallen off, the slops no
longer trust him; and the exhilarating pastime of narking has
become, for Henry, a weariness of the flesh. Time back, his hands,
as a nark, were clean; but in these troublous days he must perforce
touch jobs which, in his senescent youth, would have revolted his
quick sense of nark honour.
His downfall began with that utter abandonment of principle in the
Poppy Gardens excitement. And, if you possess a sufficiently
adventurous spirit to penetrate into those strange streets where the
prudent never so much as peep, and to hazard inquiries concerning
Henry the Blahsted Nark, the full explanation, which follows below,
will be given you—though in an amplified form, richer in the vivid
adjective.
It is now known that it was no professional point that led him to
slide back on the one person in the world who was more to him than
gold or silver or many beers. It was something more tremendous,
more incomprehensible, more ... you know. The two people
concerned are unfortunately inaccessible to the general public and
even to the ubiquitous pressman. Both of them, in their different
ways, shrink from notoriety with a timidity as sharp as that which
distinguishes the lady novelist. But pressmen are not the only people
who can get stories. Here is Henry’s.
Henry had a brother, a dearly loved companion, whom, from
infancy, he had cherished with a love that is not usual among
brothers under the Poplar arches. For this brother he had, when a
nipper, pinched from coffee-stalls, so that he should not go
supperless to bed. He had “raked” and “glimmed,” and on two
occasions he was caught doing honest work for his young brother.
The one soft spot in his heart was for brother Bert. But this
brother.... Alas, how often does one find similar cases in families!
Two brothers may be brought up amid the same daily surroundings,
under the same careful parentage, enjoying each the same
advantages. Yet, while one pursues the bright and peaceful path of
virtue, the other will deviate to the great green ocean of iniquity. It
is idle to shirk the truth. Let the sordid fact be admitted. While Henry
Wiggin was a copper’s nark, brother Bert was a burglar. He stole
things, and sold them to Mr Fence Cohen round the corner, and was
not ashamed. Henry knew that this was wrong, and the dishonesty
of his brother was a load to him. Often he had sought to lead those
erring feet into the Straight Way, but his fond efforts were repulsed.
“’Enery—if yeh don’t stop shootin’ yeh mouth at me, I’ll push yeh
blasted face in!”
On the great night when Romance peeped coyly into the life of
Henry Wiggin, he and Bert were noisily guzzling fried fish and taters
and draught stout in their one-room cottage, back of the Poplar
arches—Number 2 Poppy Gardens. Poppy Gardens, slumbrous and
alluring as its name may be, is neither slumbrous nor alluring.
Rather, it is full of quick perils for the unwary. It has not only its
record of blood, but also its record of strange doings which can only
be matched by the records of certain byways about Portman Square.
The only difference is that in the one place you have dirt, decay, and
yellow and black faces. In the other, you have luxury and gorgeous
appurtenance.
Wherefore it was stupid, stupid, with that ostrich-like stupidity that
distinguishes the descendants of noble families who have
intermarried with their kind; I say it was stupid for Lady Dorothy
Grandolin to choose this, of all places, for her first excursion into
slum-land, in order to gather material for her great work: Why I am
a Socialist: a Confession of Faith; Together with some Proposals for
Ameliorating the Condition of the Very Poor; with Copious
Appendices by the Fabian Society. Far better might she have fared in
the Dials; in Lambeth; even in Hoxton. But no; it must be Limehouse
—and at night. Really, one feels that she deserved all she got.
With no other escort than a groom—who knew a chap down here
—she stood in West India Dock Road, near the Asiatics’ Home; and,
to be strictly impartial, she was a rather effective bit of colour, so far
as raiment went. You have certainly seen her photographs in the
sixpenny weeklies, or reproductions, in The Year’s Pictures, of those
elegant studies by Sargent and Shannon. It cannot be said that she
is beautiful, though the post card public raves about her; for her
beauty is classical and Greek, which means that she is about as
interesting as a hard-boiled egg. However, if we acknowledge her
divinity we must regret that she should ever have embraced the
blue-serge god, and regret still more that her waxen fingers should
have itched with the fever of propagandist authorship. However, she
was determined to do a book on the Very Poor; nothing would stop
her. Her little soul blazed in a riot of fine fire for the cause.
Yesterday, it was Auction; the day before it was Settlements; to-day,
the Very Poor. And in papa’s drawing-room there was no doubt that
the Very Poor was a toy to be played with very prettily; for it is the
one success of these people that they can do things with an air.
So she stood in the damp darkness of Little Asia, skirts daintily
aloof, while the groom sought for the chap he knew down here. She
felt that it must be a queer and inspiring situation to know a man
down here. Yet Dixon seemed to think nothing of it. It seemed too
frightfully awful that people should live here. Never mind; Socialism
was growing day by day among the right people, and——
Then Dixon returned with the chap he knew down there, and Lady
Dorothy thought of Grosvenor Square, and shrank as she viewed
their cicerone. For he was Ho Ling, fat and steamy; and he sidled to
her out of the mist, threatening and shrinking, with that queer
mixture of self-conceit and self-contempt which is the Chinese
character. It may be that Dixon was up to something in bringing his
mistress here; one never knows. But here she was, and here was
the yellow Ho Ling; and, with a feminine fear of cowardice, she
nerved herself to go through with it. She had heard that the Chinese
quarter offered splendid material for studies in squalor, as well as an
atmosphere of the awful and romantic. Her first glances did not
encourage her in this idea; for these streets and people are only
awful and romantic to those who have awful and romantic minds.
Lady Dorothy hadn’t. She had only awful manners.
With Ho Ling in front, Lady Dorothy following, and Dixon in the
rear, they crossed the road.

Henry Wiggin lifted the jug from the coverless deal table, inverted
it on his face, held it for a moment, then set it down with a crack,
voluptuously rolling his lips. That was all right, that was. Heaven
help the chaps what hadn’t got no beer that night; that’s all he’d got
to say. He was leading from this to a few brief but sincere
observations to his brother Bert on the prices of malt liquors, when,
on the grimy window, which, in the fashion of the district, stood
flush with the pavement, came two or three secret taps. Each
started; each in different ways. Henry half rose from his chair, and
became at once alert, commanding, standing out. Bert’s glance shot
to half-a-dozen points at once, and he seemed to dissolve into
himself. For a few seconds the room was chokingly silent. Then, with
a swift, gliding movement, Henry reached the window, and, as Bert
flung back from the light’s radius, he stealthily opened it. It creaked
yearningly, and immediately a yellow face filled its vacancy.
“Ullo. It is I—Ho Ling. Lady here—all same lah-de-dah—going—
how you say—slumming. Parted half-a-bar. Wants to see inside
places. Will my serene friend go halves if she come into here, and
part more half-bars? How you say?”
“Wotto. I’m on. Wait ’alf-a-jiff.” He closed the window, and made
for the door. “’S all right, Bert. On’y a toff gointer shell out. Wants to
squint round our place. We go halves with Chinky whatever she
parts.”
“Sure it’s a toff?” in a voice meant to be a whisper but suggesting
the friction of sand-paper. “Sure it ain’t a plant?”
“Course it ain’t. Old ’O Ling’s all right.” He fiddled with the handle
of the door, opened it, and stood back, only mildly interested in the
lah-de-dah who was invading the privacy of his home. If he had any
feeling at all, it was a slight impatience of this aloof creature of the
world above; the sort of mild irritation that the convicts feel when
they stand on railway stations, the objects of the curious stares of
hundreds of people who are at liberty and think nothing of being so.
There was a moment’s hesitation; then, into the fishy, beery,
shaggy atmosphere of the room stole a whiff of the ampler ether
and diviner air of Mayfair. Into the arc of yellow candle-light, into the
astonished gaze of Henry, and into the professionally quickened
stare of Bert, stepped the warm, human actuality of A Duke’s
Daughter, from last year’s academy. Behind her, in the doorway,
calm and inscrutable as a Pentonville warder, stood Ho Ling, careful
to be a witness of the amount parted. Behind him, in the deep, dark
gloom of the archway, was the groom.
Lady Dorothy gazed around. She saw a carpetless room, furnished
only with a bed on the floor, a couple of chairs, and a table littered
with fried fish and chips and a couple of stone jugs. In the elusive
twilight, it was impossible to obtain a single full view, and the
bobbing candle made this still more difficult. By the table stood
Henry, in all his greasy glory, a tasteful set-off to the walls which
dripped with moisture from the railway above.
Oh! And again—oh! And did people really live down here? Was it
allowed? Didn’t the authorities——? Was this all there was—one
room? Did they eat and sleep and do everything here? And was this
all the furniture? Really? But however did they manage? Did they
really mean to say.... But they couldn’t, surely.... How ... well.... Was
that the bed—that thing over there? And had they no.... Dear-dear.
How terrible. How——
Oh! What was that? A rat? A rat? Ugh! How horrid! She skipped
lightly aside, and as she did so the bracelets on her wrists jingled,
and the small chatelaine bag at her waist jingled, and her wrist-
watch and the brooch at her alabaster throat were whipped to a
thousand sparkling fragments by the thin light. And as they sang,
Bert’s ears tingled, even as a war-horse’s at the noise of battle.
He considered the situation. From the outer world came little
sound. The bewildering maze of arches shut them completely from
the rattle of the main streets, and Poppy Gardens was deserted. A
train rumbled heavily over the arches—a long train carrying a host of
woes that grumbled and whined. It passed, and left a stillness more
utter. It was simply tempting Providence to let the occasion pass. It
was simply asking for it.
He looked; he saw; he appreciated. His fingers moved. On her
entry he had been standing back in the corner, beyond the dancing
reach of the light, and, with sub-conscious discretion, he had
maintained his position. Now he saw the magnificent meaning of it.
And as Lady Dorothy, prettily shrinking, moved from point to point of
the cramped room, he thrust forward his scrubby lips until they
reached Henry’s shoulder.
“It’s a sorf job!”
Henry at the table turned his head, and his eyes raked the ceiling.
“I’m ashamed of yeh, Bert,” he whispered.
 “Make old Ling take that kid off,” came from Bert. “Tell ’im we’ll
share.”
“Bert—oh, yeh low blaggard!”
But Bert, from his gloomy corner, caught Ho Ling’s eye, and
mouthed him. And Ho Ling knew. He turned back into the dark
street. He spoke to the groom, and his mumbling voice came sleepily
to the others, like the lazy hum of busy bees. Four footsteps grated
on the rough asphalt and gradually dimmed away. Silence.
Bert moved a foot forward, and tapped his brother’s ankle. There
was no response. He repeated the action. But Henry had dropped
into his chair before the odorous litter of three-pieces-and-chips in
paper, and was staring, staring, quietly but with passionate
adoration, at the lady who shed her lambent light on Number 2
Poppy Gardens. For though Henry’s calling, if it is to be followed with
success—and five years ago Henry was the narkiest nark in East
London—demands a hardened cynicism, a resolute stoniness, yet his
heart was still young, in places, and a faint spark of humanity still
glowed, not only for Bert, but for the world in general. But Henry
knew nothing of the ways of love. None of the rosebuds of
Limehouse had won his regard or even his fleeting fancy. In his
middle age he was heartwhole. And now, into the serenity of that
middle age had burst a whirlwind. He gazed—and gazed. Here stood
this—this—“ayngel” was the only word that came to his halting mind
—here she stood, a rose among dank river weeds, in his bedroom,
next to him, ’Enery, the blahsted copper’s nark. It was too
wonderful. It was too—oh, too....
He was trapped. He was in love. Soft voices sang to him, and he
became oblivious to all save the dark head of Dorothy, standing out
in the misty light, a vague circle of radiance enchanting his dulled
eyes.
So that Bert tapped his brother’s foot vainly.
Then Dorothy moved a pace toward Henry. Bert, still unseen, drew
snakily back. She stood against the table, looking down on the
seated figure. Her dress rustled against his fingers, and he thrilled
with pulsing heat, because of the body loaded with graces and
undiscovered wonders that it clothed. The glamour of her close
neighbourhood and the peaceful perfume of violet that stole from
her fired him with a senseless glory, and he longed to assert his right
to her admiration. She was talking, but he heard no words. He only
knew that she was standing against him; and as he stared,
unseeing, about the room with its whiffy table, its towzled bed, its
scratched walls (set alight by the shivering candle, as though the
whole world were joining him in his tremor), he felt well content. He
would like to sit like this for ever and for ever. This English rose, this
sleek angel, this....
Ah! Henry felt at that moment that it was Providence and nothing
less. Providence. Only so could it be explained. It was, without the
least doubt, some divinity protecting this wandering angel that
moved Henry, at that critical moment, to turn his head. For what he
saw, as he turned, was a corner of thick velvety darkness; and from
that corner emerged a pair of swart, whiskered hands. Slowly they
swam, slowly, toward the fair neck of Lady Dorothy as she talked to
Henry in ostrich-like security. Henry stared.
Then the hands met, and their meeting was signalled by a quick
scream that died as soon as uttered into a gasping flutter. It must be
repeated that Henry loved his brother, and though, from childhood
onward, they had differed widely on points of ethics, never once had
either raised his hand against the other. But to-night romance had
steeped Henry’s soul; he was moon-mad; the fairies had kissed him.
Thus he explained it next morning, but none would hear him.
For, the moment Bert’s hands enclosed Dorothy’s neck, Henry, full
of that tough, bony strength peculiar to those who live lives of
enforced abstinence, sprang up, and his left went THK! squarely
between Bert’s eyes. The grasp was loosened, and Henry grabbed
Dorothy’s wrist and swung back his arm, jerking her clean across the
room. She screamed. He followed it with a second blow on Bert’s
nose. Bert staggered, dazed.
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